Brooklyn Fictions

Vast and diverse Brooklyn is often portrayed in literature as a place of traditional community values and face-to-face relations distinct from anonymous capital-driven Manhattan. <i>Brooklyn Fictions</i> discovers what such representations of the New York borough can teach us about diversity and the individual the local and the global.<br/> <br/> Combining analysis of popular texts such as Sister Souljah's <i>The Coldest Winter Ever </i>with more canonical novels such as Jonathan Lethem's <i>The Fortress of Solitude</i> this study draws on the work of a variety of theorists on community and globalization and uses Brooklyn as a case study for an exploration of the complex relationship between romantic ideals of community and global economic forces. With cites often depicted as sites of conflict and fear this is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the contemporary urban community and the ethical issues involved in conceptualizing and portraying it in literature.